Chapter 52: Chapter 52
On the surface, they’d traded blows evenly.
But in reality, it was Sa Do-cheol’s game.
‘So this is how he killed Yo Do-sun.’
Sa Do-cheol turned from the dagger in his ribs to examine his arm. It trembled, strength failing.
From shoulder to the back of his hand. Seven pressure points had been shattered. The meridians had already blackened with corrupted blood.
‘A quarter-shi to break my arm, then threw a dagger to finish.’
At this level, it wasn’t just speed. It was bordering on sleight of hand.
Finally, the two men faced each other again.
BZZZT! Both vanished simultaneously.
TH-TH-TH-THUD!
CRACK! BOOM!
And the surroundings were devastated, leaving only horrific echoes behind.
When the lush forest was gone entirely, replaced by pure rubble.
The two reappeared.
Facing each other from roughly a dozen paces apart.
The evidence of their clash was everywhere. Yet the killing intent in their eyes remained unextinguished, fighting spirit rising off their shoulders.
No more surprise on either side.
They knew enough. They understood.
‘Sa Do-cheol. A greater monster than reported.’
‘This man. He’s no mere adjutant.’
Suspicion-filled gazes crossed. But neither spoke.
They knew better.
Only the victor of this fight earned the right to satisfy his curiosity.
KWAANG!
Sa Do-cheol moved first. An explosion erupted from his body, and a majestic aura spread outward like a shell cracking open.
The bulging crimson veins across his entire body radiated a chilling aura.
The space around him warped and crushed like paint smeared across a canvas, and he loomed like a giant.
The peak of the Asura Annihilation Art.
Ten tenths.
Meanwhile, Jang I-seo was out of daggers, and the lightning qi surging through his body was reaching its limit.
The constraints of insufficient internal energy leaking through nine holes were manifesting clearly.
“Not easy.”
Jang I-seo revealed his honest thoughts.
Honestly, a part of him was disappointed.
Was it because of the internal energy received from the Heavenly Demon?
The old Jang I-seo would have deployed techniques designed to kill efficiently. But right now, he wanted to fight.
Moreover, fighting a master of this caliber with everything on the table was extraordinarily rare. He wanted to stretch the martial principles he knew a little further.
But it was time to end this, no matter who died.
Not fighting. Killing.
“Thinking you could face me alone will be the greatest mistake of your life.”
Sa Do-cheol’s expression turned glacial. FWIP! He launched from his position.
Unbelievable speed, flying in like a streak of light.
BZZZT!
Jang I-seo bolted sideways with lightning movement.
Speed that should have let him escape easily.
“Gwahahaha!”
But Sa Do-cheol’s laughter drew closer. Before, Jang I-seo had held the speed advantage. Not anymore. Sa Do-cheol grinned like a demon, running alongside him. No. Gaining.
The drastically diminished internal energy had weakened the Thunder Circulation Method.
KWA-KWA-KWA!
The earth screamed beneath their chase. Jang I-seo’s expression soured.
Damn it.
And at that moment, KWAANG!
Dust billowed. Moments later, Jang I-seo lay on the ground with Sa Do-cheol atop him, hand locked around his throat.
“Your parlor tricks have hit their limit. Movement already slowing.”
“Kgh…”
Jang I-seo groaned through bone-crushing pain. Sa Do-cheol mercilessly thrust his massive clenched fist before his eyes.
One vertical drop and that face would be paste. No escape.
Sa Do-cheol was mounted on top of him, pinning him down.
In a word, the end. No more escaping with the Thunder Circulation Method. Completely helpless.
“Still want that apology?”
Sa Do-cheol smirked and posed his final question. The arrogant face of a victor. An invitation to deliver last words.
Jang I-seo shook his head and spoke.
“No.”
“Heh heh, hahaha!”
Sa Do-cheol burst into laughter. He thought Jang I-seo had finally learned his place. Naturally he’d want to beg for his life. But…
“Too late.”
Sa Do-cheol delivered the cruel verdict and drew his fist far back.
But right then, Jang I-seo’s calm voice slipped in.
“I know.”
And flash!
“Gah?!”
A beam of black light shot skyward through Sa Do-cheol’s back.
『White Thunder』
No. It should now be called Dark Thunder. His trump card.
The helpless state wasn’t Jang I-seo’s alone. Sa Do-cheol, straddling him and drunk on triumph, was equally exposed.
That was exactly what Jang I-seo had aimed for.
Not fighting. Creating the optimal situation to guarantee the kill.
Even if it meant using himself as bait.
CH-RRR-RRR!
White Thunder, fired into the sky, arced back down and settled into Jang I-seo’s hand. He shoved Sa Do-cheol off to the side, sent him crashing, and sat up.
“Huu. Your apology ended back when I was counting to ten. Too late, like I said.”
“Gah, kgheh!”
Sa Do-cheol, spread-eagle on the ground, repeatedly vomited black blood. His chest had been pierced through the center, his heart dealt a fatal blow. Not even a divine immortal could save him.
The bloodshot threads in Sa Do-cheol’s eyes faded. His pupils focused. Terminal lucidity. He’d begun burning his innate true qi, the irrecoverable font of life.
“Don’t think… this ends here…”
“It shouldn’t end. The apology I couldn’t get from you, I’ll collect from someone else. Whether that’s Ma I-sin. Or the entire Ma family.”
“Madman…”
“By the way. Did you learn another demonic art besides the Asura Annihilation Art?”
“Heh heh… go to hell…”
An eerie laugh, and the voice cut off. From the corner of his eye, Jang I-seo glanced over. Sa Do-cheol’s breath stopped with a sneer on his face, eyes still open.
Slaughterhouse rank one, Sa Do-cheol.
The butcher who’d cultivated his infamy from birth met a lonely end.
Vanishing without a sliver of moonlight, known to no one.
*
Caw, caw!
A forest filled with crow calls.
Jang I-seo closed the still-warm Sa Do-cheol’s eyes, then walked to a nearby tree and slumped against it.
Call it fortunate. This time, the demonic aura didn’t invade his mind with skull-splitting pain. It hadn’t disappeared entirely, but the symptoms seemed intermittent.
Thanks to that, his mind was actually clear, as if he’d finished training. His limbs just trembled from exhaustion.
“Huu. Stronger than expected.”
Slaughterhouse rank one, Sa Do-cheol.
Naturally, a master ranked within the Demonic Cult’s top one hundred was no easy opponent.
But,
‘At this level, ranking within the top fifty wouldn’t be strange. Can the head of a mere assassin syndicate really be this strong?’
They said the gap between masters was a single sheet of paper. And a lifetime of effort went into closing that single sheet.
So what was the gap between rank one hundred and rank fifty? Hyperbolically, fifty sheets of paper.
And more than anything…
Jang I-seo surveyed the devastated surroundings and shook his head.
Especially the trees riddled with holes from stone shrapnel. His tongue clicked.
This was deeply strange.
Sa Do-cheol’s martial art was the Asura Annihilation Art, learned from Thousand-Evil Asura in Duora Prison.
Thousand-Evil Asura had been a famously notorious warlord of the previous generation, so information about him was plentiful.
Most notably, his was a martial art of explosive, dangerous brute strength. Therefore, far removed from precision.
But Sa Do-cheol had…
‘Keep running, then!’
He’d displayed an exquisite artistry, punching stones at tremendous speed and power to convert them into projectiles. This meant one of two things.
‘Either he’d learned something beyond the Asura Annihilation Art, or… he was a genius whose perception had reached the pinnacle.’
Jang I-seo studied the dead Sa Do-cheol’s face once more.
He’d closed the eyes, but the mouth still grinned. Should’ve closed that too. Strangely unsettling.
“Learning an extra demonic art in the Demonic Cult is hardly unusual.”
Right. Genius or extra martial art. This was the Demonic Cult, after all. What was remarkable about that? A place where the decidedly inhuman Heavenly Demon walked around in broad daylight.
Anyway, this roughly wrapped up the Slaughterhouse.
The second brother Sa Ho-jeong remained, but with the master Sa Do-cheol eliminated and the officers sent to Wolha Village unlikely to survive the night, the organization could be considered dismantled.
He hadn’t seen Wolha Village directly. But with Chwi Hong-ran there, the outcome was obvious.
“Wait. But Maeng Hwi and Mao. Those bastards didn’t get hurt, did they?”
Baseless anxiety crept in. No. Two of them should be more than enough for Dong-tak.
But…
What if they’d bumbled around and gotten hurt? Suddenly he was worried…
“Pfft.”
Jang I-seo sat in deep thought with a rigid face, then burst into a hollow laugh and shook his head.
Who was worrying about whom?
A Martial Alliance spy worrying about Demonic Cult heirs. Excessive.
Besides, they weren’t fools. Surely they hadn’t gotten hurt in a fight they could clearly win with a moment’s thought.
“Anyway, about time they showed up.”
Jang I-seo set aside his concern for the two young masters and scanned the area.
Was he waiting for someone? Who would meet at a place like this at this hour?
But a moment later.
Surprisingly, a weary voice drifted from the branches above the tree he leaned against.
“You’ve made quite a mess.”
Grin. Jang I-seo’s lips curved up. He looked up and found a black-clad man crouching on a branch.
His attire was remarkably distinctive.
A white-beaked crow mask and a small-brimmed black hat. Black gloves, black boots. And a glossy black leather robe.
By no measure a normal outfit.
But nothing else could represent them better.
“Why so late? White Crow Gate been busy?”
The White Crow Gate. Commonly known as the Crow Cleaners.
Hang a letter scented with cinnamon bark on the crow-crying apricot tree with a time and place, and they’d clean any scene as though nothing had ever happened.
Jang I-seo had arranged to meet them near here in advance.
Thud. The Cleaner dropped to the ground, surveyed the area, and spoke.
“This is exactly three hundred fifty-seven paces southwest of the location you specified. A hundred paces further from the point means I must retrieve the de-scent incense I pre-planted. Two hundred paces means I must redeploy the personnel. Furthermore, there’s the tragedy of the originally planted trees and weeds being different. Ultimately, all of this…”
“Money.”
Money was the issue. Jang I-seo tossed out the word with a grin, and the white crow beak went quiet.